Dispute systems design

However well an organisation manages conflict, formal disputes and even litigation are still likely to arise from time to time.  Nevertheless, the key to organisational efficiency is to ensure that, even in such circumstances, cases are managed on a strategic and systematic basis so as to achieve the optimal outcome for the organisation in terms of its overall business strategy and objectives.

Only very rarely will an optimal outcome mean 'win at all costs', and a far more likely strategy for most organisations will be to seek to resolve the dispute in as cost effective means as possible, minimising in particular both the executive time distracted by protracted disputes and the commercial risk associated with sustained uncertainty as to their outcome.

By analysing the ways in which an organisation approaches conflict, including litigation, CEDR's 'Conflict culture survey’ can assess whether it is 'easy to do business with' or whether, possibly through an excessively hostile or litigious approach to conflict, an organisation might not only be incurring unnecessary risk, but also damaging its reputation as a prospective business partner and wasting the resources of both itself and stakeholders.

CEDR's 'Conflict audit' and 'dispute systems design' services work in combination to provide clients with a systematic cost and risk management strategy for early identification, analysis and cost effective resolution of disputes, whatever the business sector.  They can be applied to all categories of dispute, including:

• Systematic internal disputes (e.g. employee grievances)
• Systematic external disputes (e.g. customer complaints; insurance claims)
• Ad hoc internal disputes (e.g. team crisis management)
• Ad hoc external disputes (e.g. third party litigation)

We can also offer 'independent review' or 'investigation' of critical situations to help inform managers of the core issues in a problem situation, and how they might best be addressed.

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